The Ethics of Pokemon
by TrainerMattStories
Summary: Companion piece to the various works that I will eventually be posting. My attempts to address some of the issues surrounding NSFW pokemon stories, without forcing people to read every single individual work to understand.
1. Chapter 1

The Ethics of Pokemon

In the games, it's made quite clear that pokemon are – for the most part – treated as equals wherever possible. Obviously, displaying this realistically would be hell from a gameplay perspective, so questions like "What actually happens to a pokemon in a pokeball or in PC storage?" or "If all pokemon are animals, are all pokemon vegetarian? And if so, why do so many have obvious carnivore-based charateristics?" are glossed over, for the most part.

But if I want to write fics, I need in-world answers for these, if only for my own peace of mind. While I could address them in the fics themselves, often they would be extremely immersion-breaking, unless I was a much better writer than I actually am. In addition, they would be relevant to all of the fics I write. So either I have to repeat the explanation every time I use them, or I expect my readers to need to read everything I write, in the correct order. In short, this way is easier – for me, and, hopefully, for my readers. It also means I get to dump my exposition rants somewhere useful.

First and foremost, I want to make three points very clear:

First, everything I write here is my personal explanation. I will be trying to draw from in-game reference material, but in all honesty there is a whole lot in there that alternates between utterly terrifying and completely ridiculous. Magcargo, I choose you!

 _"Magcargo's body temperature is approximately 18,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Water is vaporized on contact. If this Pokémon is caught in the rain, the raindrops instantly turn into steam, cloaking the area in a thick fog."_

\- Pokedex Entry, AlphaSapphire ( . )

18,000 degrees Fahrenheit is roughly 10,000°C, approximately 5 times the _boiling_ point of iron. I'm sorry, but that. Is. Not. A. Thing.

So instead, I will be trying to explain my own way through.

Second, Pokemon are not human. This is an issue that is more commonly encountered in hard Science Fiction, in that aliens cannot be held to human morals or thought patterns. There will be fundamental differences that mean that some concepts simply will not translate across. Put simply, they don't think the same way.

Third: Most, if not all, of the fics this is written for will be at least mildly NSFW. I understand that this is not for a lot of people, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. However, part of the point of this document is to deal with many of the arguments that I've had over the years – so if anyone has an cogent, logical issues with this content (rather than just "Eww!1! pokeporn is gros"), I would be more than happy to try and address them.


	2. Chapter 2

1\. Pokemon Intelligence

The measure of a pokemon's intelligence is dependent on a number of factors. Translating these into game mechanics, they would roughly be **Level** , **IVs** , and **Identity**.

At extremely low levels – that is to say, when very young – pokemon are, for the most part, quite unintelligent. As they mature – and note, this is not solely a factor of age, but also of experience – their capacity for higher thought increases.

The base value, on the other hand, is an inherent value. In-game, each pokemon has a range of stat values that are possible, depending on the Individual Values, generated when you first encounter the pokemon.

This translates fairly well – it is entirely possible to find a very young pokemon that is more than just a mindless ball of hormones and instincts, but it is rather unlikely. As the pokemon mature, this difference becomes more pronounced, as the multiplier starts to do its work. Equally, however, it is possible to find pokemon that are inherently unintelligent – and even if they live an old age, they will not become all that much more intelligent.

This brings to light one of the major roles of Breeders in the pokemon world. If you have two parents that are in a high intelligence bracket, it is significantly more likely that any offspring will be of a high inherent intelligence themselves.

In addition to these is the actual species of pokemon. A psychic pokemon such as Abra or Ralts will have a higher capacity for intelligence than a more common pokemon such as Rattata. Generally, a high rarity is a decent indicator of high intelligence, though it isn't always the case.

The result of all of this? That tiny level 2 Pidgey that attacked you the moment you left your home town is more than likely just an animal defending its nest. Lance's level 60 Dragonite, though, is at least as intelligent as he is – probably more so.

And this leads to my second chapter: 2. Pokemon Societies.


	3. Chapter 3

2\. Pokemon Societies

It would be insultingly anthropocentric to assume that the only societies in the world of pokemon were those created by humans. These societies may not, however, come in the same form as human ones. Many pokemon are migratory, and in higher cases could even be thought of in the same way as many of our world's historical tribal peoples. The fact that they live differently to our modern ideal of civilisation does not make them any less for it.

Take, for example, a flock of Fearow. Each flock has an elder, most likely the grand-sire of the rest of the flock, who through age and experience is intelligent enough to lead them through the migration. They move from an area that they know is relatively safe, leaving behind young Fpearow to grow and mature on their own. Then, every so often they return, taking the new Fearow with them on the next journey. At the base level, this is, obviously, reminiscent of many animals in our world, and does not need all that much in the way of higher thought. However if there are higher levels of social interaction between the members of the flock, we begin to see the development of a society.

For contrast, though, take a tribe of mountain-dwelling Graveler. As rock-types, Geodude and its evolutions have extremely slow metabolisms, and require little in the way of food. They live on a diet of various stones they dig themselves, and supplement this with certain types of berries. While they aren't dextrous enough to personally cultivate these berries, they have established a mutually beneficial relationship with the local Budew and Roselia. The excretions of the rock-type pokemon are rich in minerals that would otherwise be impossible for the plants to access, and on the rare occasion that a Shiny stone is unearthed, the Graveler present it to them to evolve to a Roserade. The population grows, and individuals live longer, and eventually the relationship begins to develop into a fully-fledged alliance.

The flip side of this, though, is the presence of predators. A flock of Skarmory, for example, as steel/flying types – and being both immune to the Roselia's poisons and strong to the Gravelers rock-type – would have little issue preying on the fledgling alliance. So, perhaps, they enlist the help of a local pack of Vulpix, led by a wily old Ninetales. In exchange for protection from the steel-types, and a promise not to prey on the Roselia, the Vulpix are provided with some of the berry crop. Because honestly, the Graveler don't eat that much and it was getting out of hand anyway. Oh, and then the big, mean rock-types don't have to ruffle their precious fur. And now, rather than reflecting the actions of animals, we begin to see a reflection of our own societal development.

And this is a single, isolated case, within an extraordinarily complex world – without even considering humans and our annoying habit of messing around with the natural order.

And here lies an issue that I've seen come up a few times. People seem to always assume that somehow, either humans or pokemon 'happened'. But personally, I find it much more interesting to consider the implications of humans and pokemon developing side by side. How much different would society be, and how did it manage to come to a point that it is so much like our own?

Take War, for example. Would the availability of pokemon make war even more destructive? Or instead, replace it with ritual combat; a stylised testing of the strength of the alliance between a tribe and their local pokemon. That is, a 'pokemon battle'.

The unique development of pokemon means that in addition to the Darwinian survival impulses we're familiar with – that is; to eat, to reproduce, to be safe from predation, etc. – there would be an additional criteria: to Battle. To test its limits is the easiest way for a pokemon to improve itself, and the most readily available way to do this is to fight. So, in order to better facilitate this, there came the establishment of the first 'Pokemon Gyms': where pokemon and their companions can come to test themselves against stronger, willing opponents without actually putting others at serious risk.

Eventually, we could even see the development of a close coalition between a select group of humans and pokemon, tasked with keeping the peace, and ensuring that combat does not escalate to a largely destructive scale. These were the first iteration of what we now call 'The Elite Four'.

And so we can see that it's not too much of a stretch to think that we could, actually develop into a society quite like that depicted in the pokemon games – considering the limitations imposed when you actually want to make a game playable. While the anime is technically a better medium for this, I prefer to pretend Ash Ketchum never existed.

Now, fair warning, the next chapter is where I start to earn that NSFW tag.


	4. Chapter 4

4\. Recreational Sex

Now we get to the crux of the matter, and one that isn't exactly easy to address in-world.

"Why is it fine for humans and pokemon to have sex, and why does it happen so damned much?"

I have read more than a couple of stories where pokephilia is either recently outlawed or recently legalised. The only real issue I have with this concept is 'why'? Why has this only occurred now, rather than 10 years ago, or 100 years ago? What has changed that has prompted this? This is one of the things that has motivated this companion piece, because the answers to those questions are not necessarily easy to put into a fap-fic without changing the tone quite a bit.

The first, and simplest, explantion is "Because that's the kind of fic I wanted to write".

But my personal justification for it goes a bit deeper than that, and I do apologise if I start to lose people here, but I'll start by addressing the most common arguments against.

First, and most common: "But pokemon are like animals!" and the logical lead on from that "How can animals give consent?" I will start by saying **_I do not in any way advocate any kind of non-consensual sex_**. In real life, this argument is correct, animals do not have the capacity to give consent, and so don't have sex with animals.

Hopefully you will notice, however, that I have tried to highlight at least some of the major reasons why pokemon can safely be treated as not-animals. A pokemon in partnership with a trainer will, ideally, have at the very least near-human-level intelligence. They are quite obviously able to understand human communication quite clearly, and in turn are able to communicate themselves. This gives them the ability to quite clearly demonstrate whether or not they consent to a sexual encounter and in many cases, the ability to initiate one themselves.

In most cases, given the difference in levels of self-defence, one would instead assume that it would actually be the human at risk, as most pokemon have numerous ways of violently expressing their discontent, if need be.

The second argument is a little more general, and amounts to "Ew, sex is bad/a sin/embarrassing etc." In this case, the shunning of recreational sex is a societal construct, in many cases stemming from the tribal need for population control and the prevention of sexually transmitted infections.

My personal justification for the ridiculously sexually active societies I portray is that people in the pokemon world never really developed that aversion to sex. One of the hallmarks of intelligent life is the ability to make the distinction between sex for pleasure and sex for procreation – and as I have tried to make clear, pokemon can be considered well above the threshold for this.

Taking into account the in-game breeding mechanic and the existence of 'egg groups', we can see that a large fraction of pokemon can have inter-species recreational sex without fear of producing offspring. This does not eliminate the issue of STIs, but in all honesty no sickness of any kind is really encountered in the games – so for the sake of simplicity I'll follow that example.

As for the frequency of this recreational sex, it really comes to down to availability and time. At the lower ends of civilisation, most of a being's time can be assumed to be spent trying to survive, with relatively small amounts of free time. In addition to this, the pool for potential mates (barring incest) is similarly small. But as we progress down the figurative technological tree, more and more time is freed up, and more and more other beings are encountered that are potential mates.

Fast forward to the equivalent of modern times, and we have the large fraction of people and pokemon free to pursue whatever interests them. And alongside this, we have a society where sex is treated as something that is significantly less taboo. We can jump to a (reasonably) logical point at which sex is treated by many people as something between a sport, a hobby and an expression of affection. It's not the sort of thing you do with literally every person you meet, but if you like the cast of someone's jib, so to speak, they're fair game.

This is not to degrade the ideal of a committed sexual relationship – in my opinion, it actually strengthens it. The idea that your partner/s are all you need, that they satisfy you without need for outsiders, that you identify with them outside of the sexual side of the relationship – those facts will still be just as important.

And the partnership between the trainer and their pokemon should inherently foster this kind of relationship. The level of trust involved, and the shared experience – and, in all honesty, the rush that comes with winning – would all foster a closer relationship between partners.

Once you get past the issues inherent in the possibility of sex, the only obstacle is the writing. My personal favourite clichés are "Oh no, my pokemon went into Heat, whatever should I do?" or "Wow, you're really excited after that gym battle, I should give you a hand!" or even "Wow, you looked really hot beating that irritating guy into the ground for me, come let me ravish you." But my job here is to try not to write a story that's not just another clone of every fap-fic out there. Or, if I'm going to do that, then to do it well enough that you read it anyway.


End file.
